Thursday was much more relaxed. We cabbed up to a Tesco Express to pick up some food, where I had to take a picture of the William Wallace beer. Afterwards, we walked back down South Bridge, where we saw a cow's rear sticking out of a wall and the Ibex Church, and then made our way back down the Royal Mile.

We decided to do another hop-on-hop-off bus tour (using our tickets from the previous day) to see the parts of Edinburgh we hadn't seen before. The tour went around Newtown first.

Deacon Brodie, as seen on the tavern signs here, may have been the inspiration for the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Apparently he was a locksmith by day, but used the locks he made to rob houses by night -- hence the two-sided tavern sign.

The tour went around the back of the new Parliament building, where we could see the "thinking pods" (one for each member of parliament), and gave us some gorgeous views of Salisbury Craigs as well before coming back by Holyroodhouse Palace.

Now back where we started, we decided to head up to grab something for dinner at the Tolbooth Tavern, where I had a Strongbow cider (and a steak and ale pie) and Janice tried the haggis burger -- surprisingly good. I also took a couple of pictures on the way up. Apparently anti-climb paint is a real thing; that and the door were from the Museum of Edinburgh.

Walking back, the cemetery stones of Canongate Kirk drew us in, and we wandered all over taking pictures. Most of the stones were unknown names, but we did see Adam Smith's grave there.

The (rumored) grave of David Riccio, an odd sculpture, the Canongate Mercat Cross, a tree planted by Prince Charles, and the grave of Anne, companion of Mary (Queen of Scots). And then we sat on a bench for a bit and just enjoyed the early evening.

Some of my purchases from the day: a Poe compendium and an Iain Banks book from a secondhand book store where I kept knocking things over; a Hawkeye figure, a mini-mugg of the same, and a couple of "buildable vinyl" MLPs from Forbidden Planet; some yummy chocolate-covered honeycomb bits; a Scotland 2014 desk calendar for next year. Also, a lovely sterling silver ring engraved on the inside with 'anam charaid' (which is, so I was informed, Scottish Gaelic for 'soul mate').